Historic night of music in New Hope

Only in rock ’n’ roll can everything go so wrong and still go so right.

Such was the case at a crammed-to-capacity John & Peter’s in New Hope Saturday night.

The storied club was sold out for the debut of TJ Tindall’s East Coast, an all-star collaboration of 15 musicians that might have been — no exaggeration — the greatest collection of talent onstage at once in the venue’s 40-year history.

Debut was the operative word. The band had never all rehearsed together, and the anticipated sound check never occurred because of problems with the PA.

So when Tindall introduced the musicians and kicked off the show around 9:45 p.m., nobody — band members included — knew quite what to expect.

What followed over the next few hours was magical, chaotic and absolutely unforgettable.

The technical problems that derailed the sound check seemed largely absent during the first set but resurfaced after a lengthy intermission, with microphones not working and onstage monitors shot, making it nearly impossible for the performers to hear each other sing. Despite the best efforts of the sound crew, the problems were never completely rectified, prompting Tindall to mutter as he left the stage a little after 1 a.m.: “That was a disaster.”

Except it wasn’t.

Not from the audience’s perspective, anyway.

Whatever issues frustrated the musicians seemed to have little effect on the enthusiasm of the 150-or-so people packing the bar. Perhaps because the artists were that gifted, the technical problems were not enough to overshadow the music or the historic collection of talent.

The John & Peter’s stage has been home to thousands of stellar musicians, but few as accomplished as guitarist Michael Hampton, a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer as a member of Parliament-Funkadelic.

Hampton sat out the first set but joined the band for the second, wielding a Flying V and delivering scorching versions of the guitar epic “Maggot Brain” (a song Hampton made his own after replacing Eddie Hazel in P-Funk) and the party classic “Give Up the Funk.”

Hampton’s presence was only part of what made Saturday so special:

You had Charlie and Richie Ingui of the Soul Survivors, who must have sold their “souls” to look and sound as young as they do. The duo worked the crowd and led the band through show-stopping versions of their 1967 hit “Expressway to Your Heart,” as well as “Livin’ For the Weekend” and “For the Love of Money” by the O’Jays.

You had the nationally in-demand Chops Horns, a four-piece section that added so much to the sound and charisma of the band. Tindall had spoken to Chops leader Darryl Dixon multiple times by phone but had never met him until Saturday. “Those guys are pros, man,” he said after the show.

You had Jessi Teich, a powerhouse young blues singer with an onstage personality to match and, coincidentally, the daughter of one of Tindall’s grade-school friends growing up in Trenton. If you’ve never seen her sing ... do it. Trust me on this.

And you had Tindall himself, the former Gamble and Huff guitarist whose long list of collaborators reads like a who’s who of rock, funk and R&B.

In hindsight, Tindall was able to put the technical problems in perspective.

“Those things happen,” he said Monday. “It’s irritating at times — your hopes are up so high, you really want it to be perfect. But it still felt great. Everybody was having fun onstage, and ultimately, I think that’s what matters.

“It’s just really comforting, knowing everybody up there could carry his own. Without ever having the chance to all play together, you wonder what it’s going to sound like. On the one hand, you’re a little nervous, but on the other, I couldn’t see how it could be anything but good.”

And it will only get better. Tindall expects to make his East Coast an ongoing project, with an ever-expanding list of performers he hopes will include Willie Chambers of the Chambers Brothers.

Future shows will no doubt be bigger and, yes, smoother.

But they won’t be as historic as Saturday in New Hope.

No, it wasn’t particularly polished. (You want polished? Go see a Broadway show.) But it was a group of marvelously talented musicians having a blast onstage — and bringing the audience along for the ride.

Live music doesn’t get much better than that.

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